Not that I'm wishing summer away because I do love warm days and nights, but I am starting to crave crisp, cool weather. I absolutely love the smell of fall and bonfires burning at night. With fall just around the corner, I have gathered some fall decorating inspiration.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

You know that feeling when you get an urge & you can't make it go away? {No, Im not talking about going to the bathroom}. I'm talking about the hair urge. The need to do something drastic. Those are typically the urges I get when I'm bored with my hair, which is most of the time {I have hair A.D.D A.D.H.D} I go from long blonde hair to short brown hair and then short blonde hair. I got the fall "itch" last week and wanted to dye my hair reddish/brown for fall. Plus my highlights were growing out and i was o.v.e.r.i.t. I needed a change NOW.

Monday, August 27, 2012

This is my VERY first link up with one of my favorite blogs From Mrs. To Mama. I figured since I have been doing posts about our love story, it would be cool to participate in Show and Tell Monday!

1. Are you married? If so when did you get married, and tell us about your special day. If not? How would you describe your dream wedding?

I AM married to a wonderful man that makes me the happiest girl in the entire world. We were married June 17, 2011 in Louisville, KY. You can read about our crazy weather wedding day {here}.

2. Show us some wedding pictures. Either yours or of some that you love.

3. How about the engagement? Tell us your story. If not engaged, what's yourdream proposal?

I was going to do full post about this but then I thought...this is my first link up, so why not now?

{2010} I got a phone call from Dale.

"Hey, do you want to go to New York City for Easter with my parents?"

"YES!!"

I had never been to NYC before so I was so excited! Thinking of all the wonderful things we would do and see... I was like a little kid anticipating Christmas morning! When it finally arrived, Dale came to Birmingham the night before, I had to take a test in a class, and then we were off to the airport. I remember asking him tons of questions about NYC. We arrived late Friday night and walked around the city. I, of course, was snapping pictures of everything in sight. Again, little kid on Christmas morning. Saturday morning {April 3rd} we woke up and it was a normal day. Dale and his dad went down to get breakfast while the girls got ready for the day. We were going shopping to get Kailey a graduation present. We walked the streets of NYC for a bit until we came to 5th Ave.

We were in a store while K was looking at purses and Dale was casually like, hey, let's go see if we can catch a carriage and take a ride through central park. I love love love carriage rides! We got to central park and it was packed because it was an absolutely beautiful day. Being southerners, I think we moved a little too slow. EVERYONE was jumping in front of us taking the carriage we were waiting on. I was like gee wiz I didn't know we had to be THIS aggressive, let's just take a walk instead through the park. {I'm sure Dale's heart started beating hard at this point}. He agreed but after walking like 15 steps he turned around and said, no I think I want to take a ride NOW. We turned around to go back to the carriages. After trying my best to find a pretty horse and pretty carriage I pretty much said screw it and we hailed the first horse our slow selves could jump on to.

When we got in to the carriage Dale casually asked our driver if he could take our picture when we got in to central park. {Still thinking nothing of it at this point} We started trotting along. I, again, was snapping pictures of everything in sight. The driver stopped the carriage and said, "ok, hand me your camera I'll take your photo now." I stood up to hand him my camera and when I turned around, my handsome man was down on one knee IN the carriage!! Thank goodness our driver had my camera so he took a ton of pictures for us. Dale told me all of these sweet things which, of course, I cannot remember and asked me to marry him and the first thing I could think of was "did you already ask my dad?" I didn't think my parents would be able to keep it from me.

Side Note: When I told my mom we were going to NYC she told me to go get a manicure. I was like what? no! I'm not spending money to get my nails done.. I'll just do them myself. She knew that when I got engaged I wanted my nails painted {if you know me at all, you know my nails always look terrriibblle}. She was like "oohhh text me a picture when you paint your nails" "what color did you paint them" I should've known right then that something was up.

I said yes and all I could do was kiss Dale for the rest of the carriage ride. Everyone in central park was probably sick of our PDA but I didn't care! I was happy in love and I was getting married and wanted every one to know about it!

This was the official beginning of the rest of our lives together!

4. Show us your wedding rings or an engagement photo! If not engaged/married ... show us your "dream" ring.

My ring is my "dream" ring! My husband did an amazing job!

5. Tell us why you think marriage doesn't work out for so many? What can we do to make things last.

This question couple potentially get me in to some trouble. I am in no place to judge another person's marriage because I never know what's going on on the inside of the household. BUT, generally speaking, marriage doesn't work out for many people for a LOT of different reasons. In some situations, I personally believe that many couples these days give up too easily. Now, don't get me wrong, there are plenty of couples and relationships that don't work because of serious circumstances. However, divorce to some people is just an "easy" way out. "Well...we aren't getting along so let's just call it quits." NO! As a couple when you commit yourselves to marriage you have to WORK at it. No one ever said marriage was going to be an easy walk down the yellow brick road. Communication is key in any relationship and that's what couples need to keep in mind. With every relationship comes a compromise and couples need to communicate to compromise. Many times, people, women in particular, keep their feelings inside and their husband doesn't know when things are bothering them. When it comes to commutation, commitment, and compromise couples need to work to make these things happen. As a couple you need to make the commitment to one another to try to never let the "chase" die. Act like you always did when you were dating. Guys, never stop giving your wife compliments, kisses, random surprises, and taking her on dates. Women, don't stop doing sweet things for your husband, make him feel wanted, boost his self confidence. Most of all never stop TRYING!

Continued from part one here. We promised we would make it work. It turned out to be easier than we excepted to see each other. Dale's first year, he went to Georgia Tech so it was only a little over 2 hours to drive. We had so much fun in Atlanta. We visited the Georgia Aquarium, went to a Braves game, World of Coke Museum, and a lot of places for dinner.

However, it wans’t all rainbows and butterflies...it’s hard work making a relationship last when you go up to 6 weeks at times with out seeing each other. Dale's sophomore year, he transferred to University of Tennessee so the drive turned from 2 hours to over 4 hours. BUT, with hard work and determination, we made it work and did not break up once through college! We enjoyed football games together, my sorority parties and formals, and random relaxing weekends together.

I would not change the tough times for anything because it made us who we are. We know what life is like through a long distance relationship and if we can make it through 4 years of that, we can make it through any thing! We knew in to college that when I graduated we would be ready for marriage and to just be together since we had spent 4 long years apart.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Dale and I have a unique love story. See, we went to school together since 7th grade but we did not start dating until senior year of high school. Dale and I were always really good friends. In fact, when he moved to Louisville in the middle of 7th grade I saw him in the office on his first day and ran back to tell my friends that there was a “hot” new guy in our school. Dale and I exchanged phone numbers that day {yeah, I didn’t mess around} and chatted on the phone for hours on end.

We stayed friends throughout middle and high school when one day senior year something just clicked. I had a crush on Dale. I made sure he knew about it too. One of my best friends was dating a guy at the time who was on the baseball team with Dale. They were suppossed to have practice every day after school. Well, this particular day it rained ALL day long and practice got canceled. My friends boyfriend {who knew I had a crush on Dale} said, "since we don’t have practice why don’t we all go to Panera and get dinner?" Brilliant! After panera, I was smiten, head over heels. Dale called me as soon as I got home and invited me to his baseball game the next night. From then on, we spent countless nights going to games and then out to dinner after the game. After dinner we would sit in his car and talk for hours and hours until it was time to go home.

The Panera Crew

Senior prom was coming up so I talked to his sister Kailey and made sure Dale knew I wanted to go with him. Dale had gotten word that another guy was going to ask me to prom, so during 7th period he texted me “what class are you in?” Little did he know, I did not have text messaging on my phone {my dad was so old school-no voicemail or text}. Therefore, I didn’t respond to the text. He asked all of my friends until he found out I was in psychology class. Knocked on the door in the middle of class and said “hey, can I talk to Brooke?” My face turned BLOOD red as I walked out the door. He proceeded to ask me to prom and we had the time of our lives. We rode to prom in one our friend’s Dad’s RVs and danced the night away!

Graduaton came and on June 1st , 2007 Dale officially asked me to be his girlfriend! Of course, I said yes. One problem, college was just around the corner and we were going to be 2 hours and 30 min away from each other.

I get bored making Dale the same ole' same ole' chicken breast either on the grill or in the oven. It gets boring for me to make so I can imagine how he must feel eating it a lot {although he never complains}. I decided to whip up some panko encrusted chicken breasts for him one evening. Let me tell you, the looks of these things almost made me become a carnivore again. Dale said they tasted amazing so I highly suggest you run to the store and get you some panko crumbs and make these little chicks!

Good ole' little miss blog got a face lift. It was just that time. I was getting so bored looking at my blog I figured I would spice it up with some chevron and navy! Who doesn't love some chevvy these days? What do ya'll think?

Sunday, August 5, 2012

This past weekend went by all too fast. My last weekend of summer before I jump back in to work. Thank goodness it was filled with bunches of fun!

Friday night, our new friends had a cook out! I made skinny pool side dip via pintrest! Yum! It was so great to hang out, have some bevvys and great convo with friends and couples who are our age! We had so much fun and look forward to many more fun times with these friends!

Saturday we made the trip back to Louisville for a high school friend's wedding. We got to catch up with a ton of people we went to high school with which was so much fun! I even got to hang out with my friend, Kelsey! Twice in one summer?! Score! You know those friends you have that you can go months with out seeing them and then when you do, you pick up right where you left off? That's Kelsey!

The wedding was so beautiful and so much fun!

My hubby and his high school buddies!

It was a perfect ending to our summer. Tomorrow I go back to work at my new school as the new teacher! I definitely enjoyed the summer as a "stay-at-home-wife" and mommy to our puppy but I am ready to get back in to a normal routine again!

Brooke + Dale

Our Baby Girl

Polo

Followers

About me

I am a wife to a wonderful man who is finally finishing his medical school journey. I am a mother to a wonderful baby girl. I am mommy to a puppy named Polo. We love this crazy life and making new friends on this amazing journey.